Game Development Giant

Seeing the changes in the expressions of the three of them, Jester knew that they understood the meaning of what he just said.

However, Jester still plans to finish the entire idea of ​​the Carmack Scroll Algorithm.

So he continued talking without stopping.

Suppose there is a background of blue sky and white clouds on this screen. Jester said while pointing to the personal computer next to him.

The three people's eyes also followed Jester's fingers.

The character controlled by the player runs towards the right side of the screen. If it runs far enough, the clouds will gradually be left behind until they disappear from the screen. Although only a white cloud changes, most of the blue area remains unchanged. But the computer doesn't know these details. It doesn't know that there's a faster way. It just clumsily redraws each pixel that makes up the blue sky, starting at the top left of the screen and working its way pixel by pixel to the right and row by row. down until the entire screen is complete.

As he spoke, Jester laughed, To be honest, this method is indeed a bit stupid.

Mark Cerney and the other three, especially the other two main programmers of The-King, were all blushed by Jester's ridicule. This is what they did in Avengers, even though they It's a bit smarter than what Jester said, but it's still the same.

Jester didn't take it seriously either. He retracted his smile and continued: Can we write a piece of code like this? Its function is to trick the computer into thinking that, for example, the seventh pixel from the left is actually The first block on the screen, so we can tell the computer to start drawing the image where we specify it, and the computer can draw the white clouds directly instead of filling in the blue sky pixel by pixel.

Hearing this, Mark Saini and the other two nodded involuntarily. With their expertise in programming, they all heard the feasibility of this method that Jester said.

But Laris seemed to have thought of something. He frowned and thought carefully about the method Jester said for a while, and then he said with some uncertainty.

Boss, if this is the case, it is very likely that the player will feel that the movement is not smooth enough. As he spoke, there was a trace of an embarrassed smile on his face, Actually, we are currently making Avengers There are also difficulties in this regard. When the image that needs to be drawn is too complex, there will be a moment of not-so-smooth sluggishness. Although it is short-lived, if you experience it carefully, you can still feel it.

Mark Saini and Brian also nodded. The situation Larisse mentioned does exist, and it was something they just encountered recently, and they haven't come up with any good solutions yet.

hehe.

After listening, Jester still just smiled indifferently. Carmack also encountered this situation when he completed the Carmack Scroll, but Carmack solved it in a very clever way. It happened that this method was outstanding. Ste knew it too.

So, Jester smiled and simply explained to Mark Saini and the others: It's actually easy to handle. I also thought about this situation last night. We can draw a part of the sky in the video memory in advance. This is actually outside the screen, so when it first enters the screen, it does not need to be redrawn, but is mapped directly from the video memory. This gives the CPU enough time for subsequent drawing, and the sluggish feeling is also It won’t exist, and the entire background scrolling animation will look very smooth.”

I call it automatic pixel refresh. Jester looked at the stunned expressions of Mark Saini and the others and added with a smile. This was also the name Carmack gave to this method at the time.

After Mark Saini listened, he immediately fell into an inextricable shock. He had only thought that Jester had extraordinary talent in designing games and could always come up with some unexpected and extremely playable ideas. But what he didn't expect was that Jester was so talented in programming.

The three of them racked their brains and couldn't figure out how to achieve the scroll effect on a personal computer. When they were about to give up completely, he actually thought of it in the middle of the night?

This made Mark Saini couldn't help but think of the story of Gauss solving the problem of how to draw a regular heptagon with a ruler and compass that had troubled mathematicians around the world for 1,700 years in one night. Jester saw it in front of him. The image inside seemed to merge into one with the portrait of Gauss he had seen in a textbook.

I have never seen him show any talent in programming.

This is what makes Mark Saini puzzled, but he can only comfort himself in this way. There is indeed a kind of genius in this world. They can always do things that others say are impossible. After that, it's done easily.

Jester admired these three talented subordinates in programming, and his shocked eyes were a little embarrassed. After all, this was what he said directly from the script. He was talking about Carmack's process of developing this scroll algorithm, and it was not his own creation. This is nothing to be proud of, and Jester didn’t want to take all the credit, so he said to Mark Saini and the other three.

Just write a program based on this and simulate whether this algorithm can perfectly perform smooth scrolling. If so, send a letter back to ATI and say that we will make it specifically for their 16-bit graphics card. A computer game.”

After the three of them left, while just thinking about Carmack's information, Jester suddenly discovered something that he had been ignoring.

He actually hasn't created a dedicated game media so far.

He also remembered that Carmack suddenly realized this when he was working in a game magazine. Jester, who came from a later generation, naturally knew how important a dedicated game media would be to a game.

The most representative one is the Japanese magazine called Famitsu.

There are very few games that are rated highly by Fima Pass that are not extremely popular. Of course, although as time goes by, especially after Nintendo Dogs was given a perfect score, the authority of Fami Pass has been affected to a certain extent. There are some doubts to a certain extent, but players who have already formed a habit are still accustomed to trusting the ratings of Famitsu.

If you really want to create a game magazine, what should you pay attention to? Jester held his chin with one hand, frowning and thinking carefully.

He took out a piece of manuscript paper from a large pile on one side, spread it on the table, and then began to write down what he noticed.

First of all, this magazine must not be associated with the game company.

No gamer will believe the reviews of various games by a magazine that is fully owned by a gaming company, because everyone is disgusted by the behavior of being both a player and a referee.

It is also best not to contact yourself. After all, your reputation is too famous, at least on the surface, you cannot have any contact with yourself. It is not important to be known by people in the game industry. What is important is that you cannot be known by the majority of readers in the future. Know.

This is easy to solve. Just set up a company and then set up the magazine in the name of the company. As for the candidates, it's easy to find a headhunting company. As long as you pay enough, then this won't be a problem. .

Moreover, although there are many game magazines nowadays, most of them are about computer games and are not large in scale. It would be great to have a sales volume of 10,000 copies each.

However, Jester knows that with the re-emergence of video games in the future, the sales volume of best-selling professional game magazines will reach hundreds of thousands in the future, affecting at least millions to tens of millions of players.

But it’s not easy to make such a game magazine. The most important thing is to be objective and fair in the early stage, so that players can believe that your review or evaluation is professional. You cannot play a game that a player feels is average, but the editor of the magazine is in the magazine. A lot of praise for this game.

This will basically make this player have the idea that the quality of this gaming magazine is really bad, and then abandon this magazine like a broken shoe.

Especially when establishing word-of-mouth, when word-of-mouth is established, sales increase significantly, influence expands, the readership is stable, and a large number of readers are willing to believe in this magazine, then there will be many things that can be done.

It's nothing more than Spring and Autumn style of writing, one word of praise or criticism.

The game media in the future, even the always self-proclaimed fima, are not immune to this, not to mention that they have long become ign who use money to talk.

However, this kind of thing cannot be done too much. For example, the domestic media must not do it with their eyes closed. If a game is rated 8 points, readers will not blame you if you give it 8.5 points. I think it's acceptable, but if you give it a 9.5, don't blame readers for abandoning you.

When Jester wants to create a magazine, it is definitely not possible to create a truly objective magazine. The purpose of the magazine he plans to create is to lead the direction of public opinion. He deeply knows that the evaluation of a game in the future will not be the same. Not one player has the final say. Generally speaking, when players are arguing about this, they will look for ratings from some authoritative media.

famitsu, gs, or ign.

If the score is high, they will naturally have the idea of ​​buying a copy to play, but if the score is low, many people will give up this idea.

Of course, the most important thing is to have a really good level of your game, otherwise, even if you can't support Adou, no matter how hard you brag, it won't be effective.

As for sales channels, Jester is not too worried. The sales channels left by Clement Solitaire Company can be fully utilized, and this can also solve a decision that he has been hesitant about.

What to do with the Chinese employees in the printing factory affiliated to Clement Company?

Jester can be indifferent to those white and black people, but he can't care about the Chinese. After all, his foundation in the United States is these Chinese, and even in his conscience, it is difficult for Jester to accept ignoring these Chinese employees.

After all, he is not a pure capitalist and cannot be ruthless.

I plan to move the printing of cards to China, but it is impossible for so many Chinese employees to accept the low wages at the domestic level, and this transition to printing magazines can solve this problem.

After all, the magazine itself cannot be printed in China and shipped to the United States for sale.

So printing in the United States is inevitable.

The last question left is how to get players to buy such a game magazine that they have never heard of in the first place?

Jester frowned and thought for a while. After a few minutes, his brows relaxed and a slightly relaxed look appeared on his face. He did have some ideas about this.

Then he picked up a pen and wrote down the name of the game magazine he was going to create on the paper, a very simple word.

game.

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